I went to the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s concert titled “Edwin’s Grand Finale.” This was Edwin Outwater’s last concert as director of the symphony.

The program started out with a short piece written especially for this concert, “Fanfare” by Richard Reed Parry. It reminded me a bit of Dennis McCarthy.

The next piece was “Harmonium” by John Adams. The 1st part reminded me a bit of Philip Glass. It was in 3 movements, all with the symphony joined by a large choir (roughly 130 members) consisting of the Grand Philharmonic Choir and the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto.

The 2nd half was taken up by “Symphony No. 1 in D major (Titan)” by Gustav Mahler. I’m very familiar with this piece, and it was delightful. It starts off reminiscent of Beethoven and then veers into Berlioz territory. I always find it interesting to read that music we enjoy today was considered strange and disturbing when it first premiered — that was the case with the last 2 movements of this piece.

Edwin Outwater is beloved by the community — he received a standing ovation even before the concert started. It’s clear that he gets along very well with the orchestra too.

The orchestra was expanded with a bunch of guest players for this concert. For example, there are usually 4 string basses and this time there were 8.